House Passes Voting Amendment Bill

It's already against the law to discriminate, but a proposed constitutional amendment would reiterate that in the area of voting and registering to vote. The Illinois House has passed the amendment. If the Senate goes along, it would be before voters in November and would purportedly outlaw attempts to impose photo-ID-to-vote laws and other measures which could be determined to be voter suppression.

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Those laws in other states, says State Rep. Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago), “do nothing but disenfranchise broad swaths of voters, many of them black and brown.” House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago), the sponsor of the amendment, denied Republican suggestions that he is trying to crowd their proposed amendments off the ballot. In fact, he had House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) added as a co-sponsor, telling the story of how, 50 years ago, then-President Lyndon Johnson had another Illinois Republican, U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen, help pass the Voting Rights Act.

Political watchers say the amendment could help Democrat-leaning turnout in a tough gubernatorial election year. HJRCA 52 passed the House, 109-5.